Mid-Week Update: Trains, Shopping and Fire

I thought I’d throw a few interesting items into the mix here on a Wednesday, as we finally seem to be moving into fall weather (or right into winter perhaps?). Just a few tidbits to savor on your way to Friday.

PHMC/Railroad Museum of PA

To celebrate their 30th anniversary as a corporation, the history-minded staff at Norfolk Southern wanted to bring together artifacts of the companies that preceded it. I can’t (in this brief space) go into the details of how railroad corporations change and merge, but suffice it to say the modern railroads include lots of others in their histories. One of the artifacts chosen was a GP-30 diesel engine, borrowed from the collection of the Railroad Museum of PA. A standout with its Conrail blue paint, No. 2233 rolled out of the Museum and was transported to Roanoke, Virginia, to be part of a photo shoot and anniversary train trip with three other locomotives. Who knows what stories No. 2233 will have to tell when it returns to Pennsylvania in the next couple of weeks?




Not interested in trains and their adventures? Maybe some recreational shopping is more your style. Then the Commonwealth Keystone Building in downtown Harrisburg is the place for you to be Nov. 17 and 18 for the sixth annual Holiday Marketplace. Organized by the Pennsylvania Heritage Society and sponsored by PSECU, the marketplace features museum stores from around the Trails of History. You’ll find handmade textiles, pottery, tinware and more, plus Pennsylvania food products that will help you start piling on the holiday pounds (why wait for Thanksgiving?). The best part is that your purchases support the participating sites and the work they do year-round to preserve history and keep it available to all of us.

PHMC/Scranton Iron Furnaces

photo by Lynn LoRusso

In the previous Trailheads post, I wrote about the Scranton Iron Furnaces program combining Halloween traditions with a Celtic harvest festival. Judging from the photos they’ve already posted on Facebook, it was a blast. (Get it? Iron furnace—blast? Never mind.) A great combined effort to bring new life to a significant historic site and make history fun as well.

See you all Friday!